Liverpool continue their title challenge as Brentford visit Anfield in an untelevised Super Sunday clash.
Victory would lift Liverpool above Chelsea into second and 11 points off Premier League leaders – Manchester City.
Brentford meanwhile can go tenth with a win.
Team News
Liverpool have no fresh injury concerns to report as Thiago Alcantara (hip), Divock Origi (knee), Nathaniel Phillips (cheekbone) and Harvey Elliott (ankle) are still absent.
Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Naby Keita are away on international duty with Senegal, Egypt and Guinea respectively.
Brentford could welcome Sergi Canos after the Spaniard missed their last two matches with a thigh injury.
Rico Henry also is set to return after recovering from a hamstring injury.
Mathias Jorgensen, Charlie Goode (both hamstring), Julian Jeanvier, David Raya (both knee), Frank Onyeka (international duty) and Josh Dasilva (hip) remain ruled out indefinitely.
Stat Attack
- Liverpool drew 3-3 at Brentford in their first-ever Premier League encounter in September 2021.
- Jurgen Klopp’s Reds are unbeaten in their last eight matches against Brentford in all competitions (W6, D2).
- Brentford have lost each of their last five visits to Anfield against Liverpool across all competitions (L5), scoring once and conceding 12 goals.
- No English defender has been caught offside in the Premier League this season on more occasions than Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold, who has been offside on three occasions.
- Pontus Jansson has played more minutes than any other Brentford player in the league this season, having played 1,792 minutes in 20 appearances.
Prediction
Having converted just one of 17 shots onto target in Thursday’s goalless draw at home to Arsenal in Carabao Cup, Liverpool’s biggest concern has to be in their finishing because they do need to win here to give them a chance in a fading title race.
Brentford meanwhile simply imploded in Tuesday’s league visit to Southampton with a sloppy defensive performance, in a match where they were simply outplayed in attack which is a worry when they needed momentum ahead of this tricky encounter.
Neither teams though weren’t exactly at their best in midweek which will please both Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Frank respectively, which should make this game interesting because Liverpool have to make do without Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane.
Brentford will therefore hopefully view this as a good opportunity if they can get on the attack and impose their disciplined pressing style, yet Liverpool won’t make this easy but need Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino to whip on their scoring boots ASAP.
Prediction: Liverpool 1-1 Brentford
Result: Liverpool 3-0 Brentford
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